I wanted to avoid using the word border in a political context and was reminded how much I enjoyed Borderline by Mishell Baker #mbnov 📚
book
I really enjoyed To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. A little jewel of a space exploration story that really captures the spirit of scientific exploration 📚
Wednesday, November 11, 2020 →
Currently reading: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers 📚
Finished reading: Breath by James Nestor. A great book about the importance of breathing. Full of interesting stories that certainly convinced me to be more thoughtful about my breath. The end of the book also has a good summary of the main points with detailed methods. 📚
Currently reading: Breath by James Nestor 📚
I enjoyed The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington. A reasonably complex plot with mystery and adventure, along with some good characters. The word building has lots of potential and the rules for the magic make sense. I was a bit intimidated by the length, given it is part one of a trilogy, but it is nice to get immersed in a good, long book. 📚🧙♂️
Reading Shortcut for the iPad 👓⚙️
Sunday, July 26, 2020
I haven’t yet adopted the minimalist style of my iPhone for my iPad. Rather, I’ve found that setting up “task oriented” Shortcuts on my home screen is a good alternative to arranging lots of app icons.
The one I use the most is a “Reading” Shortcut, since this is my dominant use of the iPad. Nothing particularly fancy. Just a list of potential reading sources and each one starts up a Timery timer, since I like to track how much time I’m reading.
Here’s a screenshot of the first few actions:
I like the bit of whimsy from using emoticons:
- 📚 for Apple Books
- 💵 for The Economist
- 📰 for NetNewsWire
- 👓 for Safari Reading List
A nice feature of using a Shortcut for this is that I can add other actions, such as turning on Do Not Disturb or starting a specific playlist. I can also add and subtract reading sources over time, depending on my current habits. For example, the first one was Libby for a while, since I was reading lots of library books.
This is another example of how relatively simple Shortcuts can really help optimize how you use your iOS devices.
The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren is a fun read and worthy sequel to the great Bayern Agenda. The mix of cold-war thriller and sci-fi setting is definitely in my sweet spot 📚
The Last Emperox by John Scalzi is great fun and a fitting end to the trilogy 📚
China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station is intensely creative and very entertaining 📚
What is Real by Adam Becker is a great book on the measurement problem in quantum physics. Becker writes very clearly about the actual physics of the problem and the fascinating history. Such a clear example of how science is a human endeavour with politics and personalities 🔭📚
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 →
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer is a thorough, detailed, and fascinating book about heredity. I appreciated that Zimmer expanded heredity well beyond genes to make the important point that we inherit many things from our parents 📚
Although difficult to choose, Death’s End by Cixin Liu is the best book of the trilogy. Incredibly imaginative and immense in scope with a hopeful end, despite some grim content. 📚
Something Deeply Hidden by Sean Carroll is the best kind of non-fiction: engagingly written, sophisticated enough to take the audience seriously, and about a fascinating topic 📚
Where to start? 📚
The Stiehl Assassin by Terry Brooks is okay. Given this is the last series he plans to write, I’m curious to see where he takes the fourth book. Based on the three books so far, the plot is pretty standard for Shannara series. I’d hoped for something more dramatic.
After the original series, I think the Genesis of Shannara series is the most inventive one. 📚
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is an imaginative literary romance novel wrapped in a time travel espionage plot. I really enjoyed it, though it was not at all like my usual sci-fi reading 📚
Recursion by Blake Crouch is an entertaining time-travel, multiverse story. Distinct from his previous Dark Matter novel, but with the right kinds of echos 📚
I enjoyed The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. Very inventive, though definitely some grim parts, as you might expect for the second book in a trilogy. The dialogue can be a bit clunky, so the emphasis is on the science. 📚
I enjoyed Borderline by Mishell Baker. A good mix of fantasy and realism with compelling characters 📚
The Fall by Neal Stephenson is well worth a read. The concepts about consciousness, computer simulations, and death were fascinating, along with the usual hyper detail from Stephenson. Definitely a marathon of a read with multiple, overlapping stories within the book 📚
Admittedly I didn’t have high expectations, but the First Formic War series from Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is pretty good. Not as sophisticated as the original Ender’s War series, though well worth a vacation read 📚
Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston is a promising start to the prequels for Ender’s Game. Some similarities with the Expanse series, in terms of the asteroid miners, that gives some nice realism to the story and good foreshadowing of the later books 📚
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker is fascinating and concerning. I knew sleep was important, but not that it is so essential to health, memory, and learning. I’ve been falling short of my 8 hour target for a while now and am definitely motivated to reprioritize sleep again 📚
Conscious by Annaka Harris is a fascinating overview of the science of this mysterious process. Her description of panpsychism was particularly intriguing 📚
The Bayern Agenda by Dan Moren is a fun sci-fi espionage story. Well worth a read 📚
The Red Rising sci-fi trilogy is solid, page-turning entertainment. Nothing high-concept and sometimes that’s all you want 📚
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu was a fun read. The Chinese perspective made it interesting, but the actual appeal was the good science fiction. I’m looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.
The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene is a fascinating and clearly written tour of the many multiverse theories. Really mind bending stuff 📚
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is a great book with an intriguing main character, compelling plot, and fascinating world building 📚